Taylor Swift's name will be in the center of attention for everyone attending the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Women make up the majority of contenders for the top awards for album and record of the year, with only one man, jazz icon Jon Batiste, in the running.
With the most nominations for Grammy gold at 9, genre-defying SZA has the most nominations, while Billie Eilish, supergroup Boygenius and — of course — Swift are in contentious contention for top honors.
Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Janelle Monáe and Lana Del Rey are also on the list of trophy contenders.
The album of the year win would be Swift's fourth, the most by any artist, a new record that would break the tie she currently sits in with Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.
It would be the cherry on top for the 34-year-old singer, who is already on top of the music world.
She's making headlines with every breath, not least because of her romance with NFL star Travis Kelce, who won't be able to attend the ceremony as he's busy preparing for the Super Bowl next weekend.
There will also be a big dose of Barbie at the Grammys: the score from the smash summer hit received 11 nominations thanks to a host of memorable performances, including from Eilish, Dua Lipa, rapper Nicki Minaj and Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling.
Chatty Bronx rapper Ice Spice is also up for an award for her work on "Barbie," as well as the best new artist award, which industry watchers predict she could take home after a breakout year in which won the internet.
That seven of the eight nominees in the album and song of the year categories are women or of different genders is a big change that many industry observers say is long overdue.
Speaking to AFP at the pre-Grammy Awards gala at the weekend, the head of the Recording Academy, the organization behind the awards, said he was "optimistic" that the strong showing of women among the nominees was not a one-off but part of a -major institutional change.
Academy chief Harvey Mason Jr. said 2,500 new women have been on the ballot in the past five years, and 40 percent of them are now women of color.
"We're always going to be developing voting, improving it and looking at what's happening in music and what the percentages are of what's being created and consumed. We want to make sure we're meeting the principles," he said.
"We need to have more women, more people of color, more genre diversity, so we're going to keep working," Mason added.
Best new artist nominees The War and Treaty - the blues and country duo of Michael Trotter Jr and Tanya Trotter - told AFP they felt "change is underway" but also stressed there was still work to be done in this direction.
The evening will be particularly poignant for Bapiste, who triumphed at the 2022 gala while facing a huge personal struggle behind the scenes as his wife, the writer Suleika Jaouad, was treated for leukemia. This time, she'll be able to join the party as her partner competes for some of music's most prestigious honors.
Among them is the grand prize for original song for "Butterfly," which Batiste wrote for Jaouad while she was in the hospital.
The majority of the more than 90 competition trophies are handed out before the broadcast of the Grammy gala evening, which is very spectacular. SZA, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo will perform on stage.
Nigerian sensation Burna Boy and rapper Travis Scott will also take the stage, along with country singer Luke Combs, who is expected to perform a cover of his hit "Fast Car" with Tracy Chapman herself.
The main gala ceremony of the "Grammy" awards will be broadcast on Monday at 03:00 Bulgarian time on the American television CBS. /BGNES